Pew Poll: LGBT American’s Pride and Religion Conflict

A new Pew Research Center Poll released Thursday, contends that the LGBT Americans are less religious than the general public. This should not be frowned upon but they should pride themselves on overcoming religious discrimination against gays (most of which has come from religious communities).

The Pew Research Center Poll released this month, which happens to be LGBT pride month, exhibits one key fact: when members of the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) community come to love themselves–when any community of individuals love themselves–that pride protects their capacity for independent thought. This independent thought leads to a naturally occurring, shedding of old values.

LGBT with the most pride are the least believing. The survey finds that LGBT adults are less religious than the general public. Roughly half (48%) say they have no religious affiliation, compared with 20% of the public at large.

The only superhuman controlling power to abide by is one’s own independent thought–the only thing that’s truly worth hallowing. The LGBT community is setting a good standard: if you are to submit to anything, let it be your own divine will. For those who don’t, they probably can’t–seeing as they probably couldn’t find an independent thought in an empty parking lot.

The only doctrine concerning the divine usually surrounds the love of humanity, the environment, and the universe–something lost on the “holy”. A 56 year old transgender in the report states, “I am very empathetic because of my circumstance.” The nation as a whole would be more wholesome –not by working to be holy–but by being subjected to the daily anxieties of being a minority. To remain strong while being an outcast, now that’s divine.

LGBT with pride don’t seek to belong to a group united by the urge to separate themselves from the rest of humanity, such as religious people–unless we are talking about involving alcohol. Speaking about gay venues, the report states gay men are most likely of any of the LGBT subgroups to say that these distinctive venues should be maintained (68%). However, this is understandable–who want’s to go to a gay bar for men and see women?

Those with pride devote themselves to learning more about, themselves, and their place in the universe. The LA Time reported Paul Taylor, executive vice president of the Pew Research Center as saying, “Many are still searching to find a comfortable, secure place in a society where acceptance is growing — but still limited.” One 77-year-old transgender adult reported, “I have suffered most of my life in the wrong gender. Now I feel more at home in the world, I must admit, not completely. There is still plenty of phobic feelings.”

Its shouldn’t be hard to believe LGBT are less religious–look at the way they are treated. According to the poll, lopsided majorities describe the Muslim religion (84%), the Mormon Church (83%), the Catholic Church (79%) and evangelical churches (73%) as unfriendly toward people who are LGBT. And among all LGBT adults, about three-in-ten (29%) say they have been made to feel unwelcome in a place of worship.

How religious can you be as a gay man or woman when the people you have to fear the most are the ones who worship god? Religion is a difficult terrain for many LGBT adults. Pew Research surveys of the general public show that while societal views about homosexuality have shifted dramatically over the past decade, highly religious Americans remain more likely than others to believe that homosexuality should be discouraged rather than accepted by society. And among those who attend religious services weekly or more frequently, fully two-thirds say that homosexuality conflicts with their religious beliefs (with 50% saying there is a great deal of conflict).

Should America have pride in this statistic? LGBT American’s are working towards overcoming their own personal experience with discrimination by removing the hurdle to self-respect.

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), who is touted as a top GOP presidential prospect in 2016, thinks it should be legal to fire someone for their sexual orientation, reported Thinkprogress.org, Thursday. I wonder why? Is it because of some deep scientific reasoning that assumes giving gays “special protections”,like racial and gender discrimination bills have done, will taint society–or bring the human race to an end? Comical. But, so are all religious theories.

The more religious you are, the more human you are. The less religious you are, the more divine you become!

The need for religious fellowship diminishes when you realize life really isn’t that bad. According to the study, LGBT people’s are less happy than the general public–One might be apt to guess this might be due to the 52% of LGBT in the study who are religious.

Enthusiasm for life fends off the need for more religion.The overwhelming majority of LGBT people surveyed said that society had grown more accepting over the past decade and would continue to do so in the decade to come.Yet many said they had faced slurs, rejection or worse. Nearly a third had been threatened or physically attacked at some time in their life, the Pew Research Center reported. Heterosexual men, the ones most like to perpetrate hate crimes against gay men, are trapped in a cult of hate–religion– that devotes its entire existence to hypnotizing the average man into believing that, hate for other human beings, is natural. American masculinity, built on the psychosis of paranoid puritans, exacts its holy revenge on society every time a gay man or woman is bashed.

It’s not hard to believe why the Pew Research Center used an online survey rather than an in-person survey. Most people succumb to the fear of the social majority; what their neighbors and friends believe to be true has power over them……….According to the study, the online survey mode was chosen for this study, in part, because considerable research on sensitive issues (such as drug use, sexual behavior and even attendance at religious services) indicates that the online mode of survey administration is likely to elicit more honest answers from respondents on a range of topics. Religion is deaf and blind but in no way unequal in its power to alter humans behavior. In a world free of religion, there would be no shame in admitting the above mentioned behaviors, seeing as religion is the cause of a negative worldwide morality. Morality in itself is clean, its only when religion washes over it, that it becomes soiled and moldy.

The invention of the internet has done wonders for the world: one, being that it has allowed us to be more anonymous. It’s helped to decrease the need to go to church on the weekends, which in turn makes it easier to wipe the dirt of religion off of you when your time comes. For those who still attend church, physically, it becomes harder to fend off the influence of the members: many churches will call your house, email, text… send a telegram…in order to get you back to church.

Church doctrine loses its hold when we are exposed to the myriad of differing opinions and lifestyles on the net. Advancing the cause, whether one be religious or irreligious, has helped to provide LGBT adolescents and adults with accepting point of views by individuals with different background. Nearly one out of four respondents said that among public figures, President Obama was most responsible for advancing the cause. Second to the president was talk show host Ellen DeGeneres, who was named by 18% of those surveyed. Smaller percentages named Anderson Cooper, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Barney Frank and Neil Patrick Harris.

The world wide web has created a space where LGBT peoples all over the world can find a place to belong. LGBT adults are heavy users of social networking sites, with 8o% of survey respondents saying they have used a site such as Facebook or Twitter. This compares with 58% of the general public (and 68% of all internet users), a gap largely attributable to the fact that as a group LGBT adults are younger than the general public, and young adults are much more likely than older adults to use social networking sites. Gay dating websites and mobile applications have helped to encourage more LGBT men and women to accept their lifestyles, and pursue it faithfully.

As a result, more members of the LGBT community are learning to love themselves. One positive outcome revealed in the study: overall, many LGBT adults say they have used their economic power in support or opposition to certain products or companies. About half (51%) say they have not bought a product or service because the company that provides it is not supportive of LGBT rights.

If we are to trust the sample of respondents who responded the poll, we would have to believe the American LGBT community is headed in the right direction. 56% say they have told their mother about their sexual orientation or gender identity, and 39% have told their father. Most who did tell a parent say that it was difficult, but relatively few say that it damaged their relationship.

To add to this good news, the nation as a whole is becoming less religious. The percentage of Americans who declared “no religious preference” on the 2012 General Social Survey, a large-scale national survey, was more than twice the percentage of Americans who declared no religion in 1990, and four times higher than the percentage in 1972, the first year the survey was taken, reports US News.

It appears half of self-identified gay and lesbians have written their own set of beliefs as how life should be lived. We can’t say the same for all LGBT Americans, seeing as many of those, not self-identified as gay or lesbian (closeted or confused), are still trapped in the grasp of religion.
When these hidden members of the LGBT community learn to be more loyal towards themselves, and their own short time on this earth, and less devoted to the chains of religious dogma, then those LGBT with a semblance of self-respect will multiply.

So, what can we draw from this research? The more self-respect and pride the LGBT community has for itself, the less religious they become.

The fight for equality and overcoming discrimination against gay should begin at overcoming the influence of the churches, mosques, and temples. LGBT American’s have encountered too much heavy-handed abuse from the conflicted religious community; they must have pride in themselves if they are to ever accomplish this gargantuan feat of self-acceptance.